Govt hospitals in five districts to have oxygen plants

Starting with the first plant that was commissioned at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore at Royapettah Government Hospital, five districts would have oxygen production plants to ensure that there was no shortage in the future, Minister Subramanian added. The oxygen plant at the Government Royapettah Hospital will produce oxygen at 1,000 litre per minute, and supply it to 200 beds with ventilator support and intensive care unit beds.

Local MLA and DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin had contacted corporate companies to arrange oxygen concentrators at hospitals in the State, and also arranged oxygen manufacturing companies to install production plants in government hospitals, the Minister added.

The plant at Royapettah hospital is being set up by Larsen&Toubro on contract, Subramanian said, adding that the government hospitals at Coimbatore and Chengalpattu would also have their own plants in the coming days. Each of them would cost about Rs 1.5 crore, he added.

He added that all imported cases from other states and countries were being screened to ensure that other variants of COVID-19 were checked at the earliest. “We are prepared to handle the third wave, if there indeed is another wave,” he said.

Regarding the vaccination drive that faced trouble due to shortage, Subramanian said 6.16 lakh doses were expected on Tuesday, including 4,97,640 doses of Covishield from Serum Institute of India and 1,19,020 doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech.